I'm having an odd issue that started about two weeks ago, almost certainly right after update "Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista (KB960714)". It is possible that this update may not be the culprit, however.

In essence, whenever I scroll with the mouse wheel while on a webpage using IE7, I get very frequent abrupt jumps (up, down, up/down or down/up) of more lines than currently set (3). I have the same problem using a few other applications, including Explorer. Clearly this sucks eggs, as my mouse scroll was rock solid just two weeks ago and I was about to prepare a backup of my entire drive. It's infuriating to scroll down while reading something and then the page jerks around, losing one's place for several seconds. All the time...

d) Reset the advanced options in "Internet Properties > Advanced" (a redundancy, in view that everything was already set to default anyway).

e) Tried three different mice (no difference).

f) Performed a full scan with Norton Internet Security (result: negative).

g) Performed a full scan using Windows Defender (result: negative).

h) Performed a full scan using Spybot - Search & Destroy (result: negative).

i) Read a thousand posts from a thousand websites regarding issues similar to mine but found no useful information, other than realizing than a thousand people are having "jump" problems with their mice in conjunction with IE7. This seems to be an ongoing problem, albeit manifesting itself in many different guises and under many different circumstances.

I'm using a simple "generic" mouse, so it uses no dedicated software. The other mice I tried were also generic (Toshiba and IBM). They are, of course, USB Cord types, not wireless, and two of them were brand new. One of those new ones behaved even worse than my customary mouse. All of them are optical.

Don't really know about vista. Xp or 98 will reload the original driver if you Remove/Uninstall the mouse driver in System Manager. Usually gets it right on reboot. Same applies to most any device installed. Win saves a copy of all drivers installed.

So what you're suggesting is that I de-install the driver and then replug the mouse in order to have the system re-install it, right? If so, that sounds like a reasonable thing to try. I'll wait a little longer to see if other people come up with other suggestions that don't involve a driver de-install. If no one comes forth in a day or two, then I'll give it a shot. Thanx.

I decided to try your suggestion but it did not work. I did the process with all four USB ports, with no positive result.

I checked to see if the drivers related to this function had been changed at all during the last two or three weeks, but they haven't -- both are intact, according to the "modified date".

I'm going to try a fourth mouse -- also generic (Lenovo) and it uses the same driver -- but if that does not work out (and it almost certainly won't), then I've basically run out of options (aside from reinstalling my OS, which is *not* an option for me).

I really need some ideas that I haven't thought about, so please, any ideas would be welcome. Thanx.

I tried the Lenovo mouse and it works perfectly. That means that the wheel of my main mouse decided to go semi-caput, along with the wheels of the other two mice (even if one of those is new). No worries -- they were very cheap and they are perfectly usable, allowing for the choppy scroll annoyance. I guess that I can use them as backups for travel purposes. Time to get a proper Logitech or Microsoft mouse... That said, it's a little early to really claim victory, so if something changes, I'll return to this thread.